“It has made me better loving you…it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better. It’s just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting out my eyes over the book of life, and finding nothing to reward me for my pains; but now that I can read it properly I see that it’s a delightful story.”

At the start of the novel, Kitty leads a vacuous and superficial life – her destiny defined by her social status and gender.

Mrs Garstin party

Her mother, convinced that her eldest daughter has “missed her market”, urges Kitty to settle for the rather “odd” Walter Fane, a bacteriologist and M.D., who is madly in love with Kitty.

at the ball: Kitty meets Walter

Kitty’s domineering mother attempts to arrange a “brilliant match” for her

In a panic that her much younger – and less attractive – sister, Doris, will upstage her by marrying first, Kitty consents to Walter’s ardent marriage proposition with the words, “I suppose so.” Shortly before Doris’ much grander wedding, Kitty and Walter depart as newlyweds to his post in Hong Kong.

Mrs Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts)

The first night: Walter Fane

Just weeks after settling in the far East, Kitty meets Charles Townsend, the Assistant Colonial Secretary. He is extremely charming, and they begin to have an affair.

At a party with her husband, Kitty meets Charles Townsend

The opening chapter is one of great tension before Maugham flashes back and forth between past and present, explaining how Kitty comes to be caught in flagrante delicto in the opening pages.